The First Weeks of School

Wow.   So I'm already failing at my resolution to keep on top of this blog.  It's been over a month?  Where did the time go?

The first weeks of school have been a blur, but I have to say...I'm super excited about what this year will bring.  I absolutely adore my new little prekinders.  I have changed up a bunch of things this year including my room.  Pictures to come, I promise! :)

Right now I want to talk a little bit about our curriculum.  My county follows the HighScope curriculum for Pre-K.  Before moving here and taking this job last year, I was familiar with HighScope.  I did my Masters thesis on universal pre-k and the Perry Preschool Project from the 1960s (where HighScope originated) has some of the most striking research on the benefits of high quality preschool.  I was not, however, familiar with the specifics of what a HighScope classroom does/doesn't look like.

For those of you not familiar, HighScope is more of an approach than a prescribed curriculum.  A main goal is to provide the most developmentally appropriate practices for children.  There are particular key parts of HighScope.  There is a specific daily routine, classroom arrangement, and guidelines for the role of the teacher.  A lot of teachers (including myself sometimes! I admit it!) struggle with that last part because HighScope requires teachers to be more facilitators rather than directors.  HighScope is very Montessori-esque in that it is focused on the interests of the children.   A child-directed curriculum opens the door to lots of opportunities, but it can be overwhelming.

I'll probably continue to talk more about HighScope in future entries, but for now, I'll focus on two components: Morning Message and Plan, Do, Review.

Morning Message - I absolutely love this part of High/Scope.  It was tough for me to let go of the traditional calendar, but honestly, Morning Message makes more sense for this age.  Here is what my message for tomorrow looks like:

You'll see at the top I have a weekly calendar of sorts.  We cross off the days as we go.  The kids always know how many days are left in the week.  We sing songs about the days of the week and months of the year, but I don't ask them directly what came before and what comes next.  We read the full date each day, but usually don't discuss the month unless it's a new month.  In that case, we move the candle on the birthday chart and the kids are ecstatic.  I'll have to get a picture of that when I take my classroom pics.

I have created several set of numbers to use for morning message.  You can download them for free here:

The first two messages are messages we do daily.  The first one is where we talk about if anyone is missing that day.  We do an attendance graph on our Activboard (yes...I'm SO lucky to have one!) each morning as the kids come in, so they can see who is missing.  They start recognizing each other's names pretty quickly.  The second message is about the weather.  The kiddos are always extremely interested in the weather because it determines whether we're heading to the playground or the gym after lunch.

The messages after those vary by day.  I am still introducing new materials into the room.  I don't like to start with a lot of things out at the beginning of the year because the kids get overwhelmed.  This also keeps things exciting and allows me to introduce how to use materials.  The do-a-dot markers we used a couple of times in small group last week, but they will now be in the art area permanently for the kids to use during their work time.  The fourth message just means we are using ribbons later that day.

Plan, Do, Review - "Wait, what's work time?" you say.  It's basically center time.  HighScope calls it work time because children's play is their work.  Many pre-k classes have a free choice center time, but HighScope work time is different in that the kids follow the plan, do, review process.  All children make a plan before they work.  The planning methods vary from day to day and focus on language development.  After work time, the children come back and do recall.  They talk about what they did, where they worked, etc.  Do they follow their plan?  Eh, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.  The important part is that language development and a firm understanding of the concept of past, present, and future.

I have created some cards with countless planning and recall ideas.  If you use High/Scope or would like to incorporate this portion into your classroom, these cards will come in handy. :)  Download them for free here:

I'll get more pictures, activities, and more of the fun stuff up in the next post.

New (School) Year's Resolutions

A year ago today I was moving into my sweet little townhouse here in Knoxville.  I had just been offered a teaching job a few weeks prior to that.  I was anxious as to what the new school year would bring.  I had also recently discovered the wonders of Pinterest and was staying up until the wee hours of the morning pinning ideas for my new Pre-K class.  Pinterest is amazing for many reasons, but some of the best things I've discovered on there have been the incredible teaching blogs out there.  All year I've gotten amazing inspiration from teachers around the country.  That being said, I'm going to attempt to create a teaching blog myself.  I think it will help keep me motivated to keep sharing creative ideas this year.  I'm very excited about this upcoming school year.  I'm all settled in.   I'm in the same classroom.  I know the staff.  I've become familiar with the curriculum.  I just have a good feeling that this year will bring great things!

That being said, there are some things I want to remember this year:

1) Stay on top of this new blog!  I want to make sure I'm posting frequently enough so that each entry doesn't feel like an overwhelming "catch up" post.

2) Be early to school every day.  I'm not much of a morning person.  I'm usually sliding in 5-10 minutes before I go on contract.  Cutting it so close on a daily basis starts my day with completely unnecessary stress.  It's not worth it.  I'll just have to break off my relationship with the snooze button.

3) Pack healthy lunches.  My snooze button dependency also creates a problem when packing my lunch.  Grabbing a sodium-packed lean cuisine takes less time than making a turkey wrap and putting grapes in a plastic baggie.  I need to start working on fixing my lunch the night before.

4) Enter anecdotal notes daily.  My school requires that I take anecdotal notes.  Nothing new there.  Nothing too difficult for me. BUT...I also have to type, code, and submit them online.  Doing this is extremely helpful as far as organization and information retrieval goes.  However, I am terrible about staying on top of this.  I let my notes pile up in the spiral notebook and then when I sit down to type them all in, it's miserable.  This year, I'm setting aside 15-20 minutes at the end of each day to do this.  It'll save me in the long run.

5) Have fun with the kids and never stop learning!  Self explanatory. :)

I can't wait to meet my 18 new kiddos!